Me and the Legion: An Exercise in Avoiding Fan Entitlement

Now that I've tried to balance my happiness at a Jason Todd ongoing with my sadness at the loss of Secret Six, I can turn my attention to my first connection with the DC universe--the Legion of Superheroes.

I first read it in the sixties when I was very, very young. Curt Swan on art. Brainiac 5, whose power was that he was smart. And Saturn Girl, who I still think of as one of the best comic-book role models ever for young women.

I read it in the seventies. In fact, I used to read it in study hall in high school in the later seventies. And I read it in the eighties. The Legion were adults now, for the most part, and by then I was as well. They married, even had children. Being removed from present-time continuity seemed to free them to age in a way that contemporary titles perhaps couldn't. (I suppose the "having children" thing would have led to trouble of that sort eventually.)

I read it into the early nineties. The "Five Years Later" storyline? Enjoyed that immensely. Really liked the relationship between Light Lass and Shrinking Violet. And I loved it when there were two Legion books going at once. Loved it. I got them both. I cared more about the one with the older, original Legion, but I read both.

Then the books stopped in '94, and of course I stopped reading them. (This was also Insane Nineties Time at Marvel, so in fact I gave up comics altogether for ten years or so.) I tried the reboot, with the new codenames and adjusted origins, and while it was a decent book, it just wasn't "my" Legion, the one I'd grown up with. I'm not being critical of it on that point, just saying that after a 25-or-so-year relationship with the original LSH, I just couldn't really get into the new book. I don't always connect to characters like that, but in this case I did, and reading the new stories with the similar-but-different characters just felt sort of pointless. (Yes, I know I'm saying I'm "that" sort of fan. I'm not always. But with the Legion, I guess I am.)

I did read a few issues of the newest version, the one with Supergirl, because my elder daughter wanted to get them. She didn't like it much, so we didn't continue with it.

Therefore I really quite liked the Lightning Saga when it came out, and the Legion of Three Worlds, and so forth. I had been kindasorta hoping for more of them, but it seems unlikely at this point. Of course if DC ever decides to give "my" Legion their own book, I am there--floppy, digital, and trade!